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Monday, 28 September 2009

It is somewhat possible that in spite of my inclination for socio-political activism and my penchant for travelling to strange places, I may live to a ripe old age of 70.

In which case, as a little old lady, if I ever get confronted by robbers who intend to attack me, I hope there will still be noble American expatriates around.

Personally, I haven't seen any of our mainstream media carrying this bit of news, but I heard from the grapevine that the American who went to the aid of the old lady was injured in the scuffle.

He was no stray backpacker. He was apparently a man holding a good job (some say he was in the Oil & Gas industry) but prepared to risk it to save the helpless woman.

I try to think positively of my fellow Malaysians. I really do.

But if you ask me, I don't think any Malaysian would risk his own safety for the sake of anyone else - especially with the crime rate at an all-time high (police are too busy arresting peaceful street protestors).

In fact, I once saw a man beating up a woman at a bus-stop while I was driving past.

People looked on with casual disinterest. I don't know if anyone intervened. I personally doubt it.

So whoever that American is, I just want to say thanks to him and I hope he knows I have nothing but admiration for him.

Friday, 25 September 2009

Originally, I was planning to borrow a copy from a friend who was reading it.

But then the government went and banned Gedung Kartun by Zunar and co.

So of course, Yours Truly was determined to own a copy - you know what they say about Forbidden Fruit.

Since I was already paying for shipping charges, I thought I may as well get myself some more good reading material. And then I remembered May 13: Declassified Documents On The Malaysian Riots Of 1969.

KiniBooks has a good selection and I was tempted to splurge. So tempted.

Thursday, 24 September 2009

(New York) - The Malaysian government should drop its order to a popular news website to remove videos of a recent protest and of a government minister's reaction, Human Rights Watch said today.

The website Malaysiakini has refused to comply with a September 3, 2009 order by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission to remove a video showing an incident where protesters in Selangor state marched with a severed cow's head to oppose the building of a Hindu temple and another in which the home minister stated that the actions were legal. The minister later reversed himself and police charged some of the protesters.

"The government wants to make the problem disappear by taking the videos off the internet," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "But Malaysians have a right to see for themselves what happened and hear what was said - the government shouldn't be suppressing this information."

According to the Communication and Multimedia Commission, the videos are in violation of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998, which prohibits "content which is indecent, obscene, false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person." Violations carry fines of up to RM50,000 (US$14,325) and up to a year in prison.

The commission's letter ordering Malaysiakini to remove the videos from its website stated that the videos "contain offensive contents with the intent to annoy any person, especially Indians."

"The government's investigation of Malaysiakini is nothing short of media harassment and it needs to stop," said Pearson. "Malaysians are entitled to know all sides of a story. It is not up to the government to approve what news is fit to air, print, or post."

I genuinely feel embarrassed for the BN government. It puts its foot in its mouth so often that the foot ought to start paying the mouth some rent for taking up permanent residence there.

It screwed up royally when it rounded up the pseudo-Muslim gangsters to protest the relocation of the temple.

UMNO probably hoped it would garner Muslim sympathy and comradeship. It did not.

Then Hishamuddin Hussein attempted to calm trouble waters by pooh-poohing the whole issue. It backfired in his face. Literally.

He was caught on tape spouting rubbish. That move earned BN an all-time political pariah status.

Muslims were quite embarrassed (the poor things) and quick to disassociate themselves from those munafik imbeciles.

So he quickly changed his tune and ordered that those protestors be arrested and tried in court. Of course, you and I know they will be out in no time at all.

But he couldn't change the video in which he was caught making a fool of himself.

The smart thing (for any other normal being) would be to lie low and lick one's wounds in quiet.

But no. He gets a running dog, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission to force Malaysiakini (who videoed him and uploaded it to its website) to remove those offending videos.

That sort of stupidity can only attract a whole new level of attention.

But BN has been around for ages. They haven't learned anything thus far, and they never will.

Monday, 14 September 2009

Yvonne Foong, 22, has neurofibromatosis type II, which has severely affected her sight and hearing due to tumours in the brain and spine. She is scheduled for an operation between 1 and 4 December 2009. The cost of surgery is USD44,000 or RM54,770, and the cost of staying in hospital for two weeks is USD915 or RM3219.

She has raised about RM52,454.28 of this and is hoping to raise the rest by republishing her book I'm Not Sick; I'm Just a Bit Unwell in English and Chinese.

The books are now available in Malaysian bookshops and from her web site store. She is also selling T-shirts at bazaars and via her web site store. You can read about her surgery and donate to her fund.

You can also help by sending on this meme. If you do, please follow these meme rules:

1. Create a blog entry titled “Meme: Save Yvonne’s Sight”2. List three things you love to see. Add in the picture of Yvonne’s book cover. The URL is http://www.yvonnefoong.com/images/banner/my-story.jpg3. End with the line, "Yvonne Foong is in danger of losing her eyesight thanks to neurofibromatosis (NF). Please find out how you can help her by visiting her blog at http://www.yvonnefoong.com".4. Tag 5 blog friends. Be sure to copy the rules, OK?5. If you have a Facebook account, please check out Ellen’s new invention, a “feme” pronounced FEEM, a meme designed for Facebook here. And if you want to blog about NF, that would be great too!

Three things I'd love to see:1. Africa2. The face of this guy whom I have an intense crush on (not telling who)3. Websites (especially blogs - both political and general) and books - I love reading!

“Both my parents are Malay. My mum's heritage includes Chinese, Thai and Arab, while my dad is Minangkabau. Due to my skin colour, I am often mistaken for a Chinese.

I'm happy that I don’t have the typical Malay look but I do get annoyed when people call me Ah Moi or ask me straight up, "Are you Chinese or Malay?"

Like, why does it matter? Before I used to answer "Malay" but now I'm trying to consciously answer Malaysian instead..

There's this incident from primary school that I remember till today. Someone told me that I will be called last during Judgement Day because I don’t have a Muslim name.

Of course, I was scared then but now that I'm older, I realise that a name is just a name. It doesn’t define you as a good or bad person and there is definitely no such thing as a Muslim name. You can be named Rashid or Ali and still be a Christian.

I’ve heard of the 1Malaysia concept, but I think we don’t need to be told to be united. We've come such a long way that it should already be embedded in our hearts and minds that we are united.

Unfortunately, you can still see racial discrimination and polarisation. There is still this ethno-centric view that the Malays are the dominant group and their rights must be protected, and non Malays are forever the outsiders.

For the concept to succeed, I think the government should stop with the race politics. It's tiring, really.

We grew up with application forms asking us to tick our race. We should stop painting a negative image of the other races, stop thinking about 'us' and 'them' and focus on 'we', 'our' and 'Malaysians'.

No one should be made uncomfortable in their own home. A dear Chinese friend of mine said to me once, "I don’t feel patriotic because I am not made to feel like Malaysia is my home, and I don’t feel an affinity to China because I have never lived there..

I know some Baba Nyonya friends who can trace their lineage back hundreds of years. I'm a fourth generation Malaysian. If I am Bumiputra, why can’t they be, too? Clearly I have issues with the term.

I think the main reason why we still can’t achieve total unity is because of this 'Malay rights' concept. I'd rather 'Malay rights' be replaced by human rights. So unless we get rid of this Bumiputra status, or reform our views and policies on rights, we will never achieve unity.

For my merdeka wish, I'd like for Malaysians to have more voice, to be respected and heard. I wish that the government would uphold the true essence of parliamentary democracy. I wish for the people to no longer fear and discriminate against each other, to see that we are one and the same.

I wish that Malaysia would truly live up to the tourism spin of 'Malaysia - Truly Asia'.

Zaid suggested that the best test for Najib's theory would be to call for a snap election in Perak.

"The proof of the pudding lies in the eating," retorted Zaid.

"Let's see the Prime Minister, who engineered the BN takeover of the Perak state government last February, test the verdict of the people more than six months after taking over that state," he elaborated.

"Najib is telling Pakatan that since the boot is on the other foot, we are hobbling about from the discomfort of it all," said Zaid.

"Well, why doesn't he turn our discomfort into presumable misery by calling for snap elections in Perak to allow voters to rectify the mistake they made in March last year?" challenged Zaid.

And do you think they would even dare call for elections in Perak (or anywhere else, for that matter)?

In. Your. Dreams.

They had 52 years to make this country into something great. Instead, under their tender loving care, Malaysia is going to hell in a handbasket.

We may question Pakatan Rakyat for some of their policies. It is our legitimate right to do so.

But we wouldn't question their credibility, for whatever they have done or may do, they could hardly screw up as spectacularly as Barisan Nasional has managed (with such ease and flair).

Pakatan Rakyat would not allow hooligans to walk about with a cow-head and scream violence and other obscenities in the name of religion. They would not proceed to firstly, defend those fools and secondly, take absolutely no action over their misdeeds.

And for sure, Pakatan Rakyat would not arrest peaceful participants of a candlelight vigil and brutalise them just days after allowing the abovementioned hooligans to remain free.

Pakatan Rakyat may do some stupid things, but UMNO reigns supreme when it comes to blithering idiocy.

Sunday, 6 September 2009

We arrived at Dataran Merdeka just after 6.30pm. The perimeters of the square were casually littered with cops, who did not permit anyone into the square.

I had my camera with me and I was dying to take some shots of the empty square but decided against it as the cops were giving me the hairy eyeball.

So Shar and I merely walked towards the Bar Council, where we saw a small group waiting there.

Wisely, much of the crowd gathered in small groups. They were mainly waiting for instructions, presumably from Uthayakumar (whom we later found out had been promptly arrested).

The media was also waiting - some impatiently, as this was obviously turning into a non-event.

The turnout was rather poor and I barely saw a crowd. In fact, I would hazard a guess that the police outnumbered the vigil-holders.

This bunch of policemen outside the Loke Yew building were obviously not impressed by the crowd as they barely paid attention to them.

We heard there was more action over at Masjid Jamek, so we ambled over. Yes, we ambled - there didn't seem any reason to rush. Life was moving at its usual pace.

There was a slightly better crowd there though. And the FRU was in full force though I did not personally see any water cannons or tear gas squad.

A pal informed me that 16 had already been arrested. It was news that did not go down well. These HINDRAF women were obviously worried and displeased that even women were arrested.

Not to mention that even though no one resisted arrest, they were roughly manhandled and dragged into the waiting trucks.

It was such a contrast to the vehemently racist cow-head protest by the 'Shah Alam Section 23 residents' whom I believe are UMNO stooges.

I was befuddled that UMNO government sees no need to play down its obvious double-standards, as that incident is fresh in the minds of the public.

Frankly, there was no need to arrest any of those who were holding vigil peacefully.

But Shar and I agreed that in the mind of the UMNO government, the Ketuanan Melayu concept has to be upheld. Conceding to the non-Malays (even for PR reasons) would be seen as a sign of weakness by the UMNOputras.

Section 23 residents action committee chairperson Mahyuddin Manaf believes that the cow's head that was brought to yesterday's controversial protest was to 'provoke them'.

However, the self-proclaimed PAS member declined to elaborate, saying he did not want the issue to be blown out of proportion.

He also stressed that the protest was not intended to stoke racial tension but rather to 'solve such grievances'.

As for the cow's head, Mahyuddin said its appearance at the protest remains a mystery.

"We did a post mortem (on the protest) but could not identify the people who brought it," he told Malaysiakini.

There were 2 men who carried the severed cow's head while the other village idiots paraded around and yelled in their deranged, high-pitched voices. We all saw it.

And then they proceeded to stomp on the cow's head and spit on it - all the while screaming threats of violence and bloodshed.

We did not miss that - it's on video. In fact to date, I'm fairly certain we've exhausted every cow and bull pun that a nation could collectively come up with - the most notable of them being cow-ard and bullsh!t.

But these fools actually think they can get away with it.

Perhaps in the eyes of the government, they can, for after all, they are but paid stooges.

Not in the eyes of the people, though. We do know who is behind these shenanigans, and we won't forget.